Putting the craft in spacecraft

NASA has teamed up with craft website Etsy to celebrate the end of the space shuttle programme in homemade style. They are on the lookout for handmade craft pieces and artwork inspired by space exploration. The wining entries may even enjoy a trip on board the final shuttle launch

Retro the Rocket

Inspired by rockets depicted on the covers of science-fiction pulp magazines from the 1930s to the 1950s, Retro the Rocket, otherwise know as October Sky, was crocheted by Etsy user Trinlayk from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Using hand-spun, hand-dyed alpaca yarn, the rocket may be the most cosy spacecraft yet built. "Alpaca is one of my favourite fibres to work with," says Trinlayk. "It's just sooooo soft and so warm."

Someday a dinosaur will be on Earth

Photography student Jennifer Truong may have the proof as to the real origin of dinosaurs: "They came from outer space," she writes on her Etsy page; "dinos didn't belong here on Earth." Truong took this photo of a dinosaur eyeing up planet Earth using her vintage 35-millimetre format Nikon F camera.

The first image of Earth from the moon was taken by Lunar Orbiter 1 and received at the NASA tracking station at Robledo De Chavela near Madrid, Spain, on 23 August 1966.

Prehistoric Planet

This hollow clay planet, pocketed with craters and crevices and reminiscent of Mars, was made by Paul Klassett and Kate Archie from Richmond, Virginia. The 20-centimetre model allows its owner to explore a planet in the midst of turbulent change, with earthquakes, volcanoes and asteroid impacts scarring its surface.

NASA currently has two rovers – Spirit and Opportunity – on the surface of Mars, with a third rover, Curiosity, scheduled for launch late next year.

Astronaut Love

This 9.5-square-centimetre glazed ceramic tile was made by Bread and Badger, also known as Amanda and Sean Siska, in their home studio in Portland, Oregon. Homemade stencils of astronauts are applied, then the deep blue glaze of the ceramic is sand-blasted away to reveal the exposed white ceramic beneath.